How to keep your Airbnb’s safe and avoid guest accidents (Ep 574)

In today's episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Federico Zimerman and Mike Brown, the founders of Pit Stop Home Services. During our conversation, we delved into the crucial topic of safety and maintenance in short-term rentals. Federico and Mike shared their insights and expertise on the various measures that hosts can take to ensure the safety of their guests and properties

We discussed the importance of having proper safety equipment in place, such as smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, and the significance of regularly testing and maintaining them. Mike emphasized the need for audible alarms that can be heard throughout the property to alert guests in case of emergencies.

Furthermore, we explored the preventive maintenance aspects of managing short-term rentals. Mike highlighted the significance of checking and tightening furniture regularly, as loose screws and bolts can compromise the safety of guests. He also cautioned against using cheap and unreliable outdoor furniture, as they tend to deteriorate quickly and can pose a risk to unsuspecting users.

Federico chimed in with additional safety measures, such as having emergency contact information readily available for guests and displaying the property address prominently. We also touched on the subject of warning signs and striking the right balance between providing necessary information and overwhelming guests with an excess of signs.

Throughout the interview, Federico and Mike introduced their service, Pit Stop Home Services, which offers safety and maintenance inspections for short-term rental properties. They outlined the different tiers of inspections available and highlighted the benefits of their subscription-based service for ongoing maintenance.

In conclusion, my conversation with Federico Zimerman and Mike Brown shed light on the crucial aspects of safety and maintenance in the short-term rental industry. Their expertise and dedication to providing quality service through Pit Stop Home Services offer hosts the opportunity to enhance the safety of their properties and provide an exceptional experience for their guests. To learn more about their services, you can visit their website at pitstophomeservices.com 

Jasper Ribbers:
What's up everybody, welcome back to Get Paid for Your Pet. Today we are talking about safety. There's a lot of things that can go wrong in your Airbnb and I got two specialists here on the show today. Mr. Mike Brown and Frederico Zimmerman. They are the founders of Pit Stop Home Services and they provide safety inspections for short-term rental hosts. So we'll dive into this topic pretty deep but let me welcome to the show first, Mike and Frederico.

Federico:
Hey Jasper, how you doing?

Jasper Ribbers:
Good, good, good.

Mike Brown:
Glad to be here. Thank you.

Jasper Ribbers:
Good, yeah, good to have you guys here. I know Frederico for a while. He works with Mr. Stephen Suarez, the host of the Let Live Frive, or is it Let Frive Live? I always get confused.

Federico:
Little

Mike Brown:
Ha ha

Federico:
drive.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right, the podcast.

Mike Brown:
LLT

Jasper Ribbers:
LLT, right, Live Let Frive. And Frederico, you're also... You also founded Argest Rentals, right? Property management

Federico:
That is correct.

Jasper Ribbers:
company out of, was it Houston or was it Dallas? I

Federico:
Dallas.

Jasper Ribbers:
forgot, Dallas,

Federico:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
that's

Federico:
DFW

Jasper Ribbers:
right. Why

Federico:
Metroplex.

Jasper Ribbers:
don't you guys give us a quick big round. Fridri Rico, why don't you kick it off?

Federico:
Yeah, absolutely. Just for so as you were mentioning, yeah, we've been in the industry for a while in different fronts from the case, I'm sure, you know, through the liver thrive. And we have a management company with Steve where we do both owning arbitrage management for clients. And, you know, over the years, we started noticing that there was a necessity for more education and standards on the maintenance and safety sections. or areas of short-term rentals. And that's where I joined with Mike Brown, my friend here, that he's also interested in that part of the business, to start this company, Bitstop Home Services, to start providing safety certifications to properties, as well as some providing maintenance. Then I'm gonna let Mike also give an overview on that. So Mike, if you wanna continue a little bit.

Mike Brown:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks again Jasper for having us. I'm also here in the Dallas area. I've been a short-term rental host now going on four years. My wife and I started this business right after COVID. So, you know, there are a lot of challenges with people trying to basically survive, you know, with all of the, you know, decreased bookings and canceled bookings and things of that nature. And it really, you know, spurred out of the need for, at least at the time. you know, our leases didn't overlap. And so we started out with using my previous apartment as we moved into hers. And it just kind of kicked off from there. And as it's grown and evolved, now we're over 18 properties, both owned, leased or arbitrage and managed. So it's a combination. So we kind of get three different perspectives and we start to kind of build up on top of that as we start to build out our portfolio. But, you know, one of the important things as we're gonna talk about today is just understanding the critical need for more safety protocols and best practices in your short-term rentals that can help cause issues down the line and really being able to have preventative maintenance as well as a part of that, really just a foundation or structure for any short-term rental. A lot of people focus on a lot of the amenities and how nice it looks, but underneath that, another critical foundation piece is having this top of mind. There's different levels and tiers to it. We'll get a little bit into that as well, but I think we're gonna get a lot of information, valuable information. And I think after this podcast, your guests are not gonna be able to look at their short-term rentals the same ever again. So sounds a little bit scary, but it's exciting as well.

Jasper Ribbers:
That's a bold statement.

Federico:
Yeah. And

Jasper Ribbers:
Awesome,

Federico:
that's

Jasper Ribbers:
man.

Federico:
when we share information is like, we say we don't want to scare anyone. I wouldn't want you to go to sleep thinking that someone is going to get injured or worse in your property. But the reality is that accidents happen. And the idea is to provide you with all the tools that you can to prevent that from happening. Or if anything happens for your guests to have the tools and resources to limit or mitigate any, you know, bad outcome that can happen in the property.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, you know, when it comes to safety, what usually happens is something goes terribly wrong and then, you know, people that grabs people's attention and then they're like, all right, let's fix this, right? And so, you know, like I think most hosts are not super concerned about a lot of safety aspects, because if nothing's bad ever happened, then you might not even be aware of potential. dangerous, you know, like things that accidents that can happen. What, but, you know, just to, just to scare the audience a little bit, like, why don't you share some of the kind of worst case scenarios that you guys have, have kind of seen in the industry.

Federico:
Well, I mean, if you're on TikTok and social media, you probably saw that a few weeks ago, there was a big accident in the Smokies. And we had, there was a deck falling from, I think it was like eight feet because of the hot tub. So the deck was not prepared to stand the weight. And there was a girl in the hot tub, luckily she didn't die, but you know, she got injured. So, and that was very recent. But I can tell you the largest, so I always like to talk about this because it's just to give you some perspective, what is the largest settlement on a short term rental lawsuit to a host for an accident? And it was $11.6 million. And here Airbnb didn't cover anything. This is something that it was the host that had to pay and settle this lawsuit. And this was a story. So it happened at Gulf Shores, Alabama, where it was a house that had a pier to a river and it was shallow water. And there was no sign that it was shallow water. So there was a group of friends, one jumped, died. He dove into the water. He at first broke his neck because of shallow water. The guy, he survived. He ended up with a 12 hour surgery and ended up quadriplegic. So, I mean, his life was ruined. And all because there was no sign of shallow water, don't dive, when the owners knew that it was shallow water.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. And the reason I wanted you guys to share kind of the stories is, is that this is something that we typically wouldn't think about, right? Like if you, if you live in that house and you're used to that water, like it's just gonna, you know, you might not think, you might assume that everybody will know to check the depth of the water before you dive in. Right. But you know, that's not always the case. So, um, so what, yeah, what can we do as hosts? What can we do? to just keep our Airbnbs as safe as possible.

Federico:
question. Mike, do you want to start?

Mike Brown:
Yeah, so, you know, one of the things we always talk about when we get into this topic is just understanding that there are obviously layers, you know, because you can obviously try to, you know, foolproof everything which is, you know, nearly impossible. And so we want to try to find balance right balance between what your risk tolerance is as a short term rental host. Let's just say if you're first starting out, maybe you're more established so you maybe have you know, more to lose, right? Whether it's a larger portfolio, multiple homes, whether you own them, what have you. And then finding a balance between that and also understanding what your budget can sustain. And I say that because, and I'll give you a couple of comparisons going from probably easiest to maybe more challenging if you have an existing property. Cause that's probably the most, in most cases, what people are going and retroactively making sure that properties are safe. So, We can start on the lower end thinking about small things which are less costly, like for example, ensuring that you have carpet grippers or rug grippers or tape, sometimes over time, they curl up on the edge so that could cause a trip hazard. Just the fact of installing a smoke detector and CO detector in at home, I was actually very, very surprised. as I start to learn about short-term rentals and the process of onboarding and things of that nature, how on many platforms, it's not even required for you to have that in the home, which is outrageous in my opinion. And this is why you hear so many stories of people not waking up due to fire and having smoke inhalation or smoke damage and things of that nature and not being able to escape so on and so forth in time or carbon monoxide poisoning. And so all of that could easily be avoidable by installing $50, $40 device in the home. In addition to fire extinguishers, whether that's interior near the kitchen, there's obviously a certain placement that has to be. Even exterior, let's just say if you have a barbecue grill or a fire pit and things of that nature, cause you wanna be able to have access to these because the thing about it is people don't think about these until it actually happens. And usually in those scenarios, it's either like fight or flight, right? It has to be very clear on how a person needs to be able to get out of that situation. And if it's not clear, more than likely somebody is going to potentially suffer because of that, because of that situation is chaotic. Right. Other

Federico:
I'm going

Mike Brown:
things

Federico:
to give an example

Mike Brown:
like.

Federico:
on that, Mike, if you

Mike Brown:
Oh

Federico:
don't

Mike Brown:
yeah.

Federico:
mind.

Mike Brown:
Absolutely.

Federico:
Since you're talking about the fire extinguishers, I'll say, you know, what is the common place where hosts are placing their fire extinguishers in their properties? And most of the times it's done because it's a city requirement to get a license if you have to get a license and they put it under the sink, right? No, under the sink, there's no signage. So, you know, it's hard for a person during a fire to start searching for. a fire extinguisher, an opening cabinet. Plus, usually under the sink is very close from the fire source. So are you expecting for people to put their face near the fire just to see if the fire extinguisher is under there or not? People are gonna run for their lives and it's not their house, they don't mind. It's like, okay, this place can burn to the ground. I just wanna get out of here. So if you place the fire extinguisher with a signage, if it's under the sink or ideally, you know, where it has to be, which is near an exit, point, three to five feet from the ground within three to five, with the brackets provided by the manufacturer, that's going to give you more chances for the person that is in the place to actually see the fire extinguisher and give it a try and see if he or she can put off the fire.

Mike Brown:
One other thing I'll note on that too. I'm not saying this is secondary Well, it is secondary to safety because safety is paramount But even by having those types of things and all the other devices that we're talking about not only can save lives But also think about less damage to your property, right? If they're able to save or mitigate further damage same thing with water leaks I mean you'd be surprised a number of hosts that could probably not they probably couldn't tell you where the water shutoff is at the house, right? And so if there's a pipe burst, the things that nature literally every minute counts. So whether that's somebody that has a drive out to the property, whatever. So you could literally be saving thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs by small mitigation factors like that. So I think that is a piece people need to think about as well.

Jasper Ribbers:
I want to go back to what you mentioned earlier, because I never thought about that. You said something about the rugs and the carpets that you can stick them to the floor.

Mike Brown:
Yeah. So if you have an area rug on a hard surface, like a wood floor or a tile floor, cement floor, if that's the case, because over time, and even if you have, there's another method you can use as well. If you do a area rug on top of carpet, a little bit more challenging, but essentially it prevents the, I mean the natural curling edge of the corners, especially if it's in a walking path, people can trip over that pretty easily. So.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, that's interesting. I never thought about that. So I guess there's different things that we can do. We've got to have the basics in place, like the fire extinguisher that you mentioned and the smoke detectors and all that stuff. Let's talk a little bit more about the signage, because the example that you mentioned, where the guy got injured by jumping in the water, having a sign there that says, hey, be careful. Don't dive. Shallow water would have prevented that. What are some other examples of things that we should warn our guests for? Because we also don't want to have 50 different signs, because then that's going to affect the experience of the guest. So what are some other things that we should warn our guests about, some potential dangers?

Federico:
That's a good question. And when it comes to signage, I'll say, it's not only to warn them, but also signage that is useful in case of any emergency. So the first two things I'll say that you are required to have in order to be certified. And we also want to talk about a little bit of the certifying process, right? But in order to be certified, first of all, you want to make sure that you have an emergency card in your fridge where you have emergency numbers and the address of the property. Because I can assure you that if there's if you need to call an ambulance, the guest is not gonna open your Airbnb app to find the address and the checking instructions. So they need to be able to locate that quickly because they're not gonna remember that. And at the same time, you wanna make sure that your, the number, the house numbers, signage, there are numbers at least four inches and well lit. So if you call an emergency, they can actually locate the property easily. Other type of signage that is recommended to have is for pools. So the pool rules and the basics on the pools, even pool markers. So that's one of the very important signage for people to know the depth of the pool. Mike, can you think of any others?

Mike Brown:
In terms of signage not really I mean like you said before just being able to inform people of how to use things because you know We try our best as hosts to be able to you know be proactive and provide guidance There's a lot of you know things coming out with digital guidebooks now People used to have the whole the whole binder You know when you walk when you come in and things that nature but either method, you know Just by default people don't read unfortunately They're there to relax. They don't wanna have another checklist or things to do. And so, I mean, we get it, but at least having that available, and this doesn't necessarily mean, I probably should have started out saying this too, that it absolves you of any liability by any means. And one thing to make note with any of these safety certification, that doesn't necessarily mean that your property is foolproof and quote unquote safe. What it does mean is that your property provides the best practices and guidelines that are conducive to a safer environment. And so that's definitely a thing to remember. Cause as you know, we can't prevent anything, but if we do our due diligence and try to be proactive in ways like we're talking about right now, it goes way above and beyond what many hosts are already doing. And I think as regulations continue to evolve and expand throughout the United States and other parts of the world. we'll start to see these become kind of more standardized across the board. So, yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
I had a guest on the podcast a while back who actually got sued by a guest because the guest tripped in front of her house on the walkway because there was a couple steps and he was arguing that the steps weren't well lit so he couldn't see it well. Do you guys have any recommendations on that? Like if we have steps on our property like what's... What are the requirements

Federico:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
there to keep it safe?

Federico:
Oh yeah, they're markers. Right now, I don't have my notes to tell you exactly the height of any step that you need to mark. But when we certify a property, we're going to look for any steps that are not clearly marked. And we're going to recommend to have it marked. You know, there are strips and different things that you can put for people to see where there are steps. And that's a huge one. Yeah. That's something that people, even on surfaces on a backyard. If you have a hole or something like that in the ground, that's something we want to look for because someone can break a leg, step into a hole in the grass, in the backyard.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah.

Mike Brown:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
Another

Mike Brown:
it was.

Jasper Ribbers:
example is, uh, is on our property in Idlewild. I was just there a couple of days ago. We're doing renovations up there. So I was just kind of walking around the, we've got quite a bit of land and it's quite steep and we have a creek as well. There's lots of trees and it snows in the winter. So there's, there's quite a few things that could potentially go wrong. So I was just kind of walking around and thinking like, you know, what are, what are the biggest hazards on our, on our land here? And we do have a one sign that says, uh, you know, walkway slippery when, uh, when there's snow. Right. And I looked at that and I was kind of like, at first I was thinking, this is kind of like obvious, right? If, if there's snow, like it's going to be slippery. It's like, really, do we really have to warn guests

Mike Brown:
Thank you.

Jasper Ribbers:
about that? But then I realized that, um, because, uh, you know, my wife has never seen snow in her life. Right. And then I realized I was like, Oh, but somebody was never seen snow. They might actually, they might not know that. Right. It's obvious to me,

Federico:
Something.

Jasper Ribbers:
but It might not be opposite to everybody. I think

Federico:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
it's important for us to really put ourselves in the shoes of the guests and just kind of assume that the guest doesn't know anything. And then with that mindset, kind of looking at, like, OK, what are the things that we should point out that could prevent accidents?

Federico:
That is huge. And part of certifying a property is understanding the environment of the property to see things are particular to that area. That they are not general for every property, but are particular, again, to the environment and the surroundings of the property, which is not in a checklist, but it's something you want to understand and prevent. Again, it's not the same challenges you have in a place where it snows, that in a water beach destination that you may have in a city. All right. urban area. So that's for sure. And, you know, taking it to the hospi-hospitability, hospitable part of signing and communicating, you know, it's huge to understand that your guests may not know their environments around this and even things that are found inside the house that are new to them. Coming from abroad, and you may understand this Jasper, there are things in America that are not found in other countries, in houses in other countries, right? GFCI outlets, garbage disposal, dishwashers are not very common in Europe, are not very common in Latin America. And when you have people staying at your properties or from abroad, it's the first time they may see that. And having the communication ready or instructions for that is how you also enhance your hosting experience.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right. Yeah, I think another example, and you and I might have talked about this before, I think there's something with gas as well, right? If people aren't using a gas grill,

Federico:
Mm-hmm.

Jasper Ribbers:
that could be a potential challenge.

Federico:
Yeah, man, I left the grill. So I'm used to cook all my life. I cook with charcoal coming from Argentina. That's how we do our steak. The other day I left the gas opening in one of the grills and my wife's like, hey, take care of that because I'm not used to that, right? And again, I'm certified as a safety inspector. I should know that. But in the day to day, when you are having a relaxation moment, which is what your guests are experiencing, right? vacation mind and that's how it was. It was, I was kind of a vacation mind. People forget things. And that's why you wanna make sure that, for example, your grill is not near a flammable structure that it has at least nine feet overhead. And that's a very common thing. And actually that's an accident that happened in Florida. They had a barbecue in a balcony with only like, I'll say six feet. overhead, it catches on fire and one person died. So that's another example of things that happen in accidents. So you want to make sure that if you're cooking, if you're having a barbecue grill, there's space on the back and above in case it catches on fire.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, now that you mentioned the barbecues and Argentinian steak, I can't resist throwing in there a quick travel recommendation for anybody

Federico:
Mm-hmm.

Jasper Ribbers:
who ever

Mike Brown:
Thanks

Jasper Ribbers:
visits

Mike Brown:
for watching.

Jasper Ribbers:
Buenos Aires. It's one of the best meat experiences I've ever had was in the restaurant called La Cabrera in

Federico:
Oh yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
Palermo in Buenos Aires. Have you been there?

Federico:
Oh yeah, yeah. I was there

Mike Brown:
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Federico:
in January. I went there with my, I went back to visit and we went with my wife and my father-in-law. It's just amazing.

Jasper Ribbers:
It's one of the best restaurants I've ever been to. But I thought what was really cool about this restaurant is that it's so popular that there's always people waiting outside and they

Federico:
Mm-hmm.

Jasper Ribbers:
serve champagne

Federico:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
while you're waiting.

Mike Brown:
Hmm.

Jasper Ribbers:
So you always, every time you pass there, you see a bunch of people drinking champagne. And I always felt like it's such a good marketing, right? Cause everybody who

Federico:
Oh

Jasper Ribbers:
walks

Federico:
yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
past is like, what's that restaurants, right?

Mike Brown:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
Anyway.

Federico:
And there are two places like that. It's La Cabrera and Don Julio is the other one. And actually this week I opened my condo for bookings on Airbnb that is one block from that restaurant. It's already booked out for July, so I'm getting booking strong, so I'm very happy.

Mike Brown:
Thank you.

Jasper Ribbers:
Awesome. All right, well, this was a quick travel tip in there. But let's go back to the safety chat that we're having here. So tell us a little bit more about the, I know you guys founded this company, Pit Stop Home Services, to really help hosts to keep their Airbnb safe. Tell us a little bit more about your process and how you can help hosts.

Mike Brown:
Yeah, so I can jump in here. So essentially, it's a subscription-based service. And we have a couple of tiers related to that, in addition to the inspection. So the more simple inspection is, I think, a 26-point checklist that our team will go through and evaluate the property on that's in accordance with the breezeway guidelines. That's what our certification is under. And then there's a more robust one that's point list item. And then there's another one that's like 160. So there's varying levels. And so again, depending on where that particular property is in their journey and what their quote unquote baseline is, it's kind of what we can recommend. Obviously, in order to actually get the certification for the top tier one, there's probably going to be some financial investment that you'd have to make. to either making some potential upgrades, which may be minor, but those little things can kind of add up. But on the more lower tier, a lot of things can be purchased at the home goods store kind of thing to be able to put into a property. And then just ongoing maintenance and preventative maintenance. So whether that's changing out air filters, as well as looking at draining, I'm sorry, not draining, snaking drains. And just over time, just naturally hair gets clogged up in drains. And you don't want to have that happen while a guest is there. And now that's interrupting their stay and things of that nature, you wanna kind of wanna get ahead of that and just think them as a part of your normal practice. And so we have a subscription for that kind of thing to bundle those things together so that you are proactively preventing things from happening on the property. Another piece of that as well. is ensuring that just naturally over time, furniture also gets loose, right? The screws and then things of that nature and the bolts that go into beds and chairs and tables just naturally over time. And even over the course of a year, they can get loose just from all the traffic that's happening in those particular properties. And so one, that can cause a potential safety issue if somebody falls or the chair leg breaks while somebody's sitting in it, or just in general, a weak chair leg or table leg can cause further damage. through that furniture and now you have to replace it. So those kinds of things, which go a long way and unfortunately hosts don't necessarily think about that. So we're bringing that to the forefront and really being able to have those that want to be at the top of their field, at the top of their game, maximize their potential and mitigate risk at the same time.

Federico:
Yeah. And at the end of the day, you have two ways to deal with situations on your short-term rental like that when it comes to maintenance. You have to fix it before it happens on when your guest tells you about it. And option two is usually the worst one because that's going to affect your reviews, the guest experience, and that's not what you want to do. So the idea of Car racing pit stop is when the cars are racing and they stop for a brief moment, to be serviced quickly and efficiently to continue racing. And this is the way that, if you think about a short-term rental, it has a high use, you have turnover after turnover, and at some point you need to stop for a few moments, make sure that the short-term rental is safe and that is well maintained to keep running without any issues, right? Because that's the whole idea.

Mike Brown:
And even down to, because we have a partner that we work with on the HVAC, plumbing and electrical side, evaluating those systems as well, at least on an annual basis, because, you know, when you think about whether it's a homeowner or whether it's a lease, you know, taking care of the property, even for those major systems can go a long way and help you identify problems before they even happen. And even just taking inventory of things. So, only onboard our properties. as a part of the checklist is for appliance, major appliances on the property. We get the model numbers, serial numbers, so we know the types of appliances they are. And for the vendors that we work with, they're skilled enough to come prepared with the typical issues that may be happening for that particular model or brand, so on and so forth. Because appliances, a lot of times those things are more commonplace for certain model numbers and they know that. And so they can come... equipped with the right tools And really save time and money and be efficient with the process At the end of the day and for some systems for larger systems depending on the age and the life of them You can kind of know when they may need to be replaced. So for example, you know, you got a 22 year old a system You may not even make it through the summer. So being prepared financially or whatever. Whatever have you to be able to act on that and or maybe even have the proper insurance or home warranty in place to mitigate financial or major financial losses in that aspect as well. And if I have a moment, I want to give that comparison on the insurance that people always, if I can.

Jasper Ribbers:
Go for it, man.

Mike Brown:
So, yeah, so one of the things I had mentioned and Tarek and I talk about this all the time is that, people always think that, hey, you know, short-term rental insurance will, you know, save me in all these particular situations. That may not always be the case. And being able to have systems in place like this and best practices can, you know, not only help you but also help your brand and potentially make you stand out. I know I'm kind of going a little bit of a tangent, but even in scenarios where you're working with more B2B, I know the vast majority of the short-term rental industry is doing B2C, right? Business to customer. But once you go to B2B, even if it's not a midterm rental scenario, they're gonna be looking for those things that ensure that their employees or their staff are gonna be safe, right? And if you can show that with the certification and the due diligence that you've done, I mean, you're already a cut above. But what I wanted to get that was with the insurance side. So there's a comparison and I brought it up because I didn't wanna misquote it that talks about the way that people think about wearing a seatbelt. in the way that short-term rental operators think about insurance. So in a scenario where you've got a car driver and they say, hey, the airbags work. Why wear a seat belt when the airbags can protect me if I get in an accident? People have this perspective of, hey, well, this is my car. Don't tell me what to do in my own car. If I want to wear a seat belt, I can wear it whenever I want. And the government shouldn't regulate if I wear a seat belt. And then you also have the perspective of, I'll never be in a car wreck. I'm a great driver. Only the people that get hurt are the people who don't know how to drive. And those are the ones that get in car accidents, which is a horrible perspective. But this is how people think. When you translate that to short-term rentals, people think that, hey, insurance will protect me. My insurance provider didn't say anything when they saw the photos of the property and the listing. So it must be okay, right? Don't tell me how to make my home safe. especially for those that have lived in the home before they made it into a short-term rental. It's been safe my whole life that I've lived in it with kids, so on and so forth. Nothing's ever happened to us, so it should be fine. And then the last is, you know, the people in big government thinking, hey, the government shouldn't have any business telling me how I should regulate my property, it's my private home. So all those kinds of perspectives, and you know, there's just that small percentage of people you'll never change their mind, but those that see this and understand it and see the perspective. are typically the ones that are gonna make that pivot and do what's best for their guests at the end of the day. So I

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm.

Mike Brown:
just wanted to share that. I thought that was like a little funny comparison and see if we can change some minds.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, so I guess there's the topic of insurance and I'm sure there's people thinking, well, I'm assured so I'm fine. But then there's a lot of, it's always better to prevent stuff than even if you're predicted. Yeah, even if you have the airbag, you still don't want to get in the car accident.

Federico:
Yeah, and you probably all know how insurance is working, right? If they find that you were, you are not comp, what is the word? So you didn't take the

Mike Brown:
negligent.

Federico:
measurements. They say, yeah, you're negligent. This is not for you. And that's the part that's important to understand this. First of all, if you get certified through us, we're going to certify you through Breezeway and that's going to give you 10% discount on your proper insurance if you use proper, which is already great. And it's going to help pay in part of your inspection. And also there's been examples where people had accidents in the house and the owners were able to prove that the house was inspected through a paper trail on emails. And with that, they got off the hook from lawsuits because the house was inspected and the negligents were the guests. And that's also important, right? Just understanding that. Taking these steps is not gonna prevent making sure that nothing will happen, but if something happens, again, as I mentioned in the beginning, not only you, you're gonna provide all the tools and resources and best practices to mitigate any issue, but also you're gonna be covered because you are being the opposite of negligence, right? You're doing everything that you're supposed to be doing. And to quote, the person who developed the entire curriculum for this certification is Justin Ford. I mean... And I think that what he's doing for industry is extremely valuable. So I thank him. Uh, it is huge. And he says compliance is devastating and that's something to keep in mind. Right. That's the way he put it. And, um, that really struck me. It's like, yeah, you think it's not gonna happen to me. It's gonna happen to the next door property. Not to me, but it may happen to you.

Jasper Ribbers:
So what was the name of the person you mentioned again?

Federico:
Just- Justine Ford.

Jasper Ribbers:
Justin Ford. Ah, okay,

Federico:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
got it. Shout out to Mr. Justin Ford. Let's see, is there anything else that we should be talking about that we haven't talked about yet?

Federico:
I mean, there are so many things to keep in mind in your house, but I'll make sure you know that, think about, you have all the best standards and processes when it comes to alarms, smoke alarms is very important. For example, you want to make sure that all the alarms are connected. So if it's activated in the kitchen, it's also activated in every bedroom and that in every bedroom is at least 80 decibels. That's something that we will be verifying if we do an inspection. because another thing to keep in mind is that most of the people on vacations are drinking alcohol and that's gonna make them, that's gonna lower their ability to wake up if something's happening. I haven't had heavy sleeping, I slept through earthquakes and all that stuff, so I understand that. So you wanna make sure that people can hear that. I will say, but something I noticed, and I love to go to Airbnb and look into other people's listings and see what people are doing, running comps and stuff like that. And I cannot tell you how many times I've seen a tiny bedroom with two queen bunk beds. So that's eight people in a tiny bedroom with a fan in the middle and no window. So no

Mike Brown:
Yep.

Federico:
second escape route from the bedroom and a fan in between the bedbanks is just, you know, an accident waiting to happen because it's gonna happen because someone's gonna jump from the upper bed and they're gonna... know,

Mike Brown:
Man's

Federico:
hit

Mike Brown:
gonna

Federico:
their

Mike Brown:
be, you

Federico:
head.

Mike Brown:
know.

Federico:
It's been happening. I mean, there's been an instance like that report on short term rentals. So yeah, what else do you have in mind, Mike?

Mike Brown:
No, I think we hit a lot of great topics and points. I mean, at the end of the day, we just want people to reevaluate and look at their property with fresh eyes. As a short-term rental operator, if you've been operating, especially out of the same home for more than two or three years, it's probably time to have a third party come and do it because you just get blinders on as the rental manager, as the owner. And so having somebody as a third party come in and evaluate the property, they'll be able to point out some things and you may not like it, but point out some things that you should probably consider in improving on your property to add that value and also the safety piece to it. One of the big ones you mentioned earlier, which a lot of people don't think about, especially when they're taking on existing homes, is most homes aren't set up in a commercial way. unless somebody's added on those kinds of amenities to have lighting on the exterior that it's kind of automated, right? With the photo sensor to turn on, dusk till dawn, all that kind of stuff. And so we'll take on properties because we do management as well, and they don't have those kinds of features. And so when you think about a scenario where, somebody's checking in late at night, if nobody else has been at the home, the lights are probably off and you don't want somebody... you know, driving up or walking up to a completely dark home in a neighborhood they don't know. Again, we talked about trip hazards before and things of that nature. And so even small things like that, we always recommend for our homeowners to do upgrades on, to be able to have that. I mean, it's nice curb appeal too, right? And you just don't wanna have somebody to just have the front light on 24 seven, cause that's not reasonable either, right? Cause what's gonna happen is, you know, the cleaner after they clean, they're gonna turn it off, you know, whether it's by accident or not, or the guest that left. previously, you're gonna turn them off, and then when the next guest comes in, they're gonna be off, right? So having that system automated in a way that nobody has to think about it is a great way to go. So anyway, there's probably lots more we can talk about. We love this kind of stuff, and we can get pretty deep into it, but at the end of the day, we just wanna be able to elevate the standard of hosts.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right, right. And you guys, I know you guys are in Dallas. Do you just have this service in your markets or are you in different areas in the United States as well?

Federico:
We're starting right now in Dallas, but we plan to expand rapidly. So we have contact with all operators, larger operators that are getting certified to start providing and partner with us as well under the same name, it's the

Mike Brown:
Yeah.

Federico:
Stop Home Services and the idea is to expand this to the entire nation. Oh yeah, we're starting here in the DFW area.

Mike Brown:
And if there's definitely

Jasper Ribbers:
Awesome,

Mike Brown:
a

Jasper Ribbers:
guys.

Mike Brown:
need with someone that has a larger portfolio in a certain area or city, we're happy to, you know, do travel to make that happen as well where it makes sense. So.

Jasper Ribbers:
Awesome guys, we appreciate you guys jumping on here and sharing your wisdom. So again, for the listeners, Pit Stop or Home Services, if you wanna check out the process and the inspection list and all that good stuff, then go ahead and check it out. And with that said, that's the end of the podcast for today. So again, Mike and Freddie, thank you so much for being here. And to the listeners, thanks for listening. We'll be back on Friday with another episode. So we'll see you then and have a great week.

Federico:
Thank you, Jasper.

Mike Brown:
Thank you.